Dear all, The AC compressor of my 348 doesn't work anymore! I'm not at home at this moment and I have to order a new one as soon as possible. Could you confirm that the original one is a 'SANDEN SD7H15 7840'? The original one seems to be very expensive! Do you know an alternative? I read the 'SANDEN SD7H15 4710' is similar, same connexion and fitting holes, but the pulley is not exactely the same. Do you have any idea? Thank you so much Marc
I thought a new compressor from our sponsor is around $500 which is OK for a Ferrari. If all it needs is a reseal job, you can do that yourself for $50.
I posted a link to one in the stickey thread here: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355-sponsored-bradan/50339-348-parts-sourcing-interchange-27.html $289 and it's working great. The URL that I posted in the stickey thread is bad now, but I think this is the one based off of the vendor item number: https://www.polarbearinc.com/index.cfm/product/11262/co-7840f.htm
If your compressor is leaking, then there are only two seals to replace. The big O ring and the little shaft seal. You can get them on-line. Then un bolt the pulley, pull out the pulley, work your way into the compressor, remove the two seals and put the new ones one. $50. Tops. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yelcab, Thank you. I recently replaced all my o-rings at every connection, new schrader valves, new drier, cleaned the valve block, pulled a vacuum overnight that held. Recharged with R12. Cooled great. A month later the charge was gone. I'm assuming, my compressor is leaking. Just haven't had time to investigate.
More than likely the front seal on the compressor Jerry, but could also be leaking at a crimp on one of the a/c hoses or could even have a small pin hole in an a/c hose. Good luck with it mate, I would charge the system with nitrogen if possible and listen to the front of the compressor first to hear for a leak. That's how I found the leaking front seal on my a/c compressor I changed last year.
That's a good repair man, but some people just don't have the skills or the tools to get the job done. And if you're take it to workshop to do the work for you, add labour on top of that which then makes it seem easier to just replace the a/c compressor for a few dollars more. Also, perhaps it's not the front seal leaking on the compressor of the OP. Perhaps his a/c clutch is fried. I changed my a/c compressor last year because the a/c clutch had an open short. It wasn't the original reason I changed it, my system was empty. I charged the system with nitrogen and found the front seal was leaking. I removed the compressor to replace it and we put power to the clutch and it was not engaging. We checked with a multimeter and found it had an open short. So perhaps the OP has this problem with his compressor and not a front seal leaking. Either way, thanks for sharing your pics mate. You do some great work.
In my case, the green die in the system pointed to the compressor leaking at the big O ring. I opted to do the work myself, found the seals on line, got a seal install tool (a metal condom), and did the fix. The only special tool you might need is a puller to take out the pulley and I have plenty of those. Working great still, no leaks. I think I still have the part number for the seals somewhere.
Yelcab Do you have those seal part numbers? Or where you bought them? I am having a leak at the front of the compressor case on my 348 spider and I believe I need the big oring seal. I found it by using nitrogen and pressurized the system to over 300 psi before I found the leak. Have a nice video of it because the out of state dealer I bought it from claimed it worked fine and the car was delivered with non working ac in arizona in middle of summer. Not happy.
The sanden sd7h15 4710 is the same ac compressor in every aspect except the pulley is an 8 rib not a 5 rib. its not an issue though as the extra 3 ribs are extended toward the compressor case not toward the firewall making the compressor the same length. The standard 5 rib serpentine belt will rid on the very front of the pulley leaving the last 3 ribs toward the compressor case open. I have the attached the pdf schematics for the sd709 7505 that came on my 94 348 spider and the sd7h15 4710. I was alerted to this 4710 compressor from Rick at acparts.com he has been doing automotive ac for decades. I found the 4710 at techchoiceparts.com for under 200 shipped brand new...
if you take a look at the two pdf schematics you can clearly see it just just looks like they put an 8 rib pulley on a sd709 7505 replacing the 5 rib pulley. I was told this isn't exactly the case though as the shaft diameter is different but as far as bolting in and working with in place of the 7505 or 7840 its a perfect fit. the 4710 is almost 200 dollars cheaper from the link i posted, than the 7840 costing $389 not including shipping at polarbearinc.com linked above . Does a slightly different, but fully functional pulley matter to you for a $200 difference? Not to me. Hope this helps people looking to replace their ac compressor. I was going to rebuild my 7505 and the kit was around 50 dollars but that's just the front-housing o-ring and the shaft seal. no new bearing or back-housing gasket, new reed valves or anything, plus the time to do the job its much easier and probably cost effective to drop in the 4710 and call it a day.